Barrier coatings which prevent, or reduce, contact of a selected substrate with a gas, vapor, chemical and/or aroma have been widely described, and such coatings are used in a variety of industries, e.g., the packaging industries, automobile industries, paint industries, tire industries etc. Some of these barrier mixtures or coatings have been proposed to contain plate-like structures to reduce permeability. See, for example, E. L. Cussler et al, J. Membrane Sci., 38:161-174 (1988); W. J. Ward et al, J. Membrane Sci., 55:173-180 (1991); U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,528,235; 4,536,425; 4,911,218; 4,960,639; 4,983,432; 5,091,467; and 5,049,609; and International Patent Application No. WO93/04118, published Mar. 4, 1993, among others.
Despite the numerous disclosures of barrier coatings mixtures, most of the coatings useful in the industry either do not optimally reduce permeability or tend to be brittle and non-flexible. For example, attempts to improve the gas permeability of butyl rubber as well as retain its elasticity and fatigue resistance, have involved coating butyl rubber in tires with a polymer containing a platelet filler. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,911,218 and 5,049,609. Only minimal decreases in permeability were achieved by this process.
Other attempts to increase the gas barrier properties of rubber used in tires have included compositions of rubber having layered silicate platelets dispersed within the rubber composition. See e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,397; WO97/00910 and G. J. van Amerogen, "Diffusion in Elastomers", Rubber Chem Tech 37, pp 1065-1152 (1964). Exfoliated layered silicate material has been used to improve the gas barrier properties of rubber. See, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,469.
Several references have been made to the orientation of platelet materials in rubber and polymeric compositions. Specific perpendicular orientation of the platelets to the direction of gas diffusion has been found to decrease gas permeability of rubber compositions containing layered silicate platelets, while not adversely affecting the flexibility of the rubber. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,576,372; 5,576,373; and 5,665,183. Puncture resistance is increased in polymeric sheet material comprising discrete platelets which are oriented substantially parallel to the plane of the sheet material in an overlapping interrelation. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,810.
Most of the coatings useful in the industry which contain platelet type fillers are prepared by melt processing, in which solid polymer and solid filler are melted together and mixed at high shear rates. Such melt-processed coatings have 100% solids, and usually use less than about 3% by weight of the platelet fillers. Such coatings do not optimally reduce permeability.
Various improvements have been described in the manufacture or treatment of tires or tire components to decrease permeability of the inner tire surface or the interfaces between the tire layers or components to gases, vapors and chemicals. In the tire industry, for example, it has been conventional to add fillers, e.g., carbon black, up to about 30% by volume (or 100 parts per hundred) to innerliners, or to use coatings to improve impermeability of butyl rubber. However, such attempts have not been found to optimally reduce permeability. Tires with integral innerliners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,702, wherein the tire has a top layer and multiple layers of rubber laminate in which at least two layers are barrier layers comprising a sulfur cured rubber composition having 100 parts by weight rubber, 100 parts by weight acrylonitrile/diene polymer and about 25-150 parts by weight of platy filler of unspecified width and thickness. These compositions are stated to reduce the costs of the innerliners while maintaining flexibility and barrier performance.
An additional application for barrier coatings utilizing elastomers with fillers is as a coating or bladders or other surfaces in pneumatic devices or any device under pressure such as sport balls, etc. Many sport balls use a bladder to hold air or other gas inside the ball. Sport ball bladders are currently made using natural or butyl rubber or polyurethane. The choice of these materials is determined by the trade-off between mechanical properties, air barrier properties, and cost. The use of standard, non-flexible barrier coatings to reduce the loss of air or the thickness of the bladder is not acceptable due to the flexibility requirements of the application.
There remains a need in the art for barrier coating mixtures and flexible and elastomeric articles with improved permeability characteristics useful in a variety of industries. More particularly, there is a need in the art for barrier coating mixtures to improve the air retention and/or reduce the thickness of the innerliner in sport balls and any other device under pressure, such as soccer balls, basketballs, tennis balls, toy balls, inflatable boats, inflatable mattresses or beds, etc.